Wyndham Cuts 850 Jobs, Launches Cost Saving Initiatives

DALLAS— In response to the slow economy and the downturn in business travel, Wyndham International completed corporate-wide lay-offs, which included the elimination of 850 headquarters staff and hotel managers, or about 3% of its work force. The lay-offs began in February and April, when approximately 150 of the headquarters’ 500 employees were terminated. Another 700 hotel managers were laid off in June and July. “The lay-offs were planned to position Wyndham for the current economic climate and for the future, so we would be more prepared as a result of the reduced costs at the hotels and in the workforce,” a spokesperson for Wyndham said. The spokesperson added that a number of the eliminated positions did not include the termination of existing employees, but involved human resources no longer looking to fill already vacant, or newly created job slots. In addition, all of the hotel managers that were laid off were not “at levels that touched the guests;” no general managers, food and beverage, or line level employees were let go. Instead the job cuts included sales managers, catering managers, and regional sales employees, the spokesperson stated. At corporate headquarters, lay-offs “were across the board,” including employees from the IT department, human resources, operations, and design and construction, ranging from high-level managerial employees to executive assistants. While Wyndham currently has no plans for further lay-offs, Andrew Jordan, svp/marketing for the company, said during a conference call that further cuts would be made if the economy warrants them. In addition to the staff reductions, Wyndham has also implemented a number of cost saving initiatives at the property level. “Every general manager has been asked to look at his own property and determine a way to decrease costs,” said the spokesperson. These reductions are not intended to affect the quality of the guests stay, and may include such initiatives as changing flower displays every five days instead of every three days, the spokesperson added. Wyndham has also decided to put some of its technological improvements on hold. “We didn’t want to cut hotel budgets for corporate initiatives. We’ll wait until the economy is more on line,” the spokesperson said. Wyndham currently has 240 hotels and 29,000 employees worldwide. In addition, Wyndham reported a loss of $12.3 million, or $0.24 per share, in the second quarter, compared with a loss of $46.5 million, or $0.43 per share a year earlier. While the loss narrowed, RevPAR fell 5.4%. –Diana M. Rodriguez